Aethiopica 14 (2011) International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies ________________________________________________________________ GIOVANNA TRENTO, Roma Article Madamato and Colonial Concubinage in Ethiopia: A Comparative Perspective Aethiopica 14 (2011), 184߃205 ISSN: 1430߃1938 ________________________________________________________________ Edited in the Asien-Afrika-Institut Hiob Ludolf Zentrum fÛr £thiopistik der UniversitÃt Hamburg Abteilung fÛr Afrikanistik und £thiopistik by Alessandro Bausi in cooperation with Bairu Tafla, Ulrich BraukÃmper, Ludwig Gerhardt, Hilke Meyer-Bahlburg and Siegbert Uhlig Madamato and Colonial Concubinage in Ethiopia: A Comparative Perspective GIOVANNA TRENTO, Roma Introduction* On colonial concubinage in Ethiopia there is no other extensive research available.1 Due to the lack of previous research on this topic, this article cannot provide an exhaustive portrayal of colonial concubinage in Ethiopia; however it highlights the great need for the study and reconsideration of colonial life in Northeast Africa from a local point of view. To explore the peculiarities of colonial concubinage in Ethiopia, its ban- ning during Fascism in 1937, and its development despite racist legislation, we should start by comparing the Ethiopian case to the Eritrean one, because ߃ as we shall see ߃ on colonial concubinage in Eritrea there is a small amount of good literature already available. To fill in this gap today, the role of second and third generation Ethiopian-Italians and Eritrean-Italians can be of great historical and anthropological relevance.2 Italian colonial literature and cine- ma can also provide useful information on the topic and suggest additional considerations. As far as colonial concubinage in the Horn of Africa in gen- eral is concerned, local agency and impact are still largely unexplored or un- derestimated. Thanks to a visit I paid to a former colonial concubine in Nazret (Ethiopia) in 2009, thanks to the interviews I conducted with her daughters and with other Ethiopian-Italians and Eritrean-Italians in Italy and Ethiopia, and thanks to additional research and interviews I intend to con- * This article partly reproduces my presentation at the XVIIth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, organized in Ethiopia in November 2009 by the University of Addis AbÃba. This work is based both on written sources and on field research and interviews I conducted both in Italy and Ethiopia between 2006 and 2009. In this arti- cle dates are given in the European calendar. 1 Some preliminary indications on this topic can be found in my article ߋLomi and TotÑ: An Ethiopian-Italian Colonial or Postcolonial ߇Love Story߈?ߌ (TRENTO 2007). 2 I would like to thank my interlocutors and the people I interviewed; in most cases I will not reveal their names, mentioning their initial followed by ***. I am very grateful to scholars Alessandro Bausi, Shiferaw Bekele and Richard Pankhurst for their fruitful sug- gestions. I also thank my interpreters Hailemariam Ayalew and Terefe Worku. Aethiopica 14 (2011) Madamato and Colonial Concubinage in Ethiopia: A Comparative Perspective duct in Ethiopia in 2011, my on-going research aims at providing a relevant contribution to the study of colonial life in Ethiopia.3 The issues this article deals with implicitly raise questions related to the contemporary debate on African historiography and to both the Ethiopians߈ and the Italians߈ self-representations through colonialism, nationalism and ߋinterculturalߌ encounters. The shape taken by colonial concubinage in the Horn of Africa and, most of all, in Ethiopia is due both to the Ethiopian agency and to the ߋburdenߌ of the dualistic theorization of the Questione meridionale (ߋSouthern Questionߌ) borne by the Italians. Moreover, the Ital- ian ߋcolonial imaginary worldߌ remains largely unexplored; thus the question of how the ߋItalian widespread colonial cultureߌ did (or did not) impact on the self-representation of ߋcolonial subjectsߌ still remains unsolved. Self-Representations through Colonialism Italian colonialism in North and Northeast Africa began in the early 1880s and formally came to an end in 1947. In 1890, Italy established as a colony the whole of what was then called Eritrea. It started occupying Somalia in 1889, Libya in 1911, and finally occupied Ethiopia from 1935-36 until 1941.4 In 1936, Mussolini ߃ who was in power from 1922 to 1943 ߃ pro- claimed the empire and created Africa Orientale Italiana (Italian Northeast Africa) in the Horn of Africa. Italians lost control of Ethiopia in 1941.5 Even if in Italian former colonies the memory of colonialism has remained vivid, on the contrary, Italian historiography after World War II tended for decades to exclude colonialism from national history: in schools and universi- ties, as much as in everyday life, the whole country largely forgot its colonialist past. This happened for several complex and still unclear reasons. One of them 3 In 2010߃2011 I have had the opportunity to keep working on this and related topics thanks to the Programme on the Study of the Humanities in Africa, Centre for Hu- manities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and also thanks to a grant offered to me by the Centre FranÆais des ¨tudes ¨thiopiennes in Addis AbÃba. Moreover, I have been invited to present the paper ߋEthiopian Madamas: Cohabiting with the Fascist Subalternsߌ at the international conference Femmes et genre en con- texte colonial, held in January 2012 at Sciences Po, Paris, France. 4 The Italo߃Ethiopian war was particularly violent, but atrocities were committed also elsewhere by the Italian army (in Libya in particular); see among others: AHMIDA 2006; SBACCHI 2005: 47߃56. 5 During World War II, the country became a base and a theatre of military operations. Italian Northeast Africa was surrounded by British territories and the Empire soon col- lapsed. ׼aylà ĹƼllase I returned to Ethiopia in 1941, after Italy߈s defeat by the United Kingdom. The peace treaty was finalized in 1947, even if later on Ethiopian rights to res- titutions and reparations were not always respected by Italian governments. 185 Aethiopica 14 (2011) Giovanna Trento is definitely the sudden end of Italian colonial power as a consequence of the outcome of World War II; therefore there was no decolonization process and no public discussion on this topic, which might have made people more con- scious about what was going on. Moreover, after World War II those who in the colonies had committed crimes were not brought to trial, not only because some Italian postwar governments were trying to make silent international efforts to regain the ex-colonies,6 but also because Washington and London were pursuing anticommunist strategies, to the point that some former colonial fascist criminals ߃ such as Badoglio ߃ benefited from some international ߋpro- tectionߌ thanks to their extremely anticommunist positions.7 Another reason may be the poor and shabby definition of Italian colonialism and imperialism (imperialismo straccione), coined by Lenin and retained by many Italians,8 or the sense of shame that some Italians felt at the end of the 1940s for having lost both the War and the colonies. Moreover, these aspects go along with a certain degree of ߋfluidityߌ in the Italian establishment and among intellectuals be- tween fascist and post-fascist Italy. Finally, the lack of public judgment of racist and colonialist crimes made it difficult for Italians to ߋdigestߌ the past (especially the fascist past), so much so that in 20th century Italy colonialism remained for decades a sort of ߋtabooߌ.9 Starting about forty years ago ߃ at the time when this ߋtabooߌ was infringed by the pioneering research of Angelo Del Boca ߃ historiography has slowly begun to reactivate itself. In the last ten years, there has been some interest around the history of Italian colonialism, also in the international field and in postcolonial studies. However, many of its aspects remain unexplored.10 But ߋItalian Africaߌ did not only represent the ߋelsewhereߌ, since it was al- so instrumental to the self-representation of Italy, which was that of a country 6 Cfr. LABANCA 2002: : 428߃429. Through these diplomatic efforts Italy obtained from the United Nations the fiduciary administration of Somalia between 1950 and 1960. 7 Cfr. DEL BOCA 2002: : 116߃125. 8 ߋImperialismo straccioneߌ; cfr. Lenin, L߈imperialismo fase suprema del capitalismo, 1916, quoted by LABANCA 2002: : 24. 9 Between 1887 and 1941 many Italo-Ethiopian wars and acts of slaughter took place in Abyssinia. Some Ethiopian sources suggest that in this period 730,000 people (both soldiers and civilians) were killed by the Italians; however, according to historian An- gelo Del Boca, Italians killed in Abyssinia approximately 400,000 people; cfr. DEL BOCA 2002: : 111߃116. 10 I ask myself if we would ever manage to overcome the ߋlack of memoryߌ that, unfor- tunately, took place in Italy after WW II, without ߋre-discovering the oblivionߌ and understanding its profound motivations. As one of the questions that guides my work is: how, why, and in which ߋmysteriousߌ ways has the ideological and imaginary background of the ߋItalian colonial adventureߌ been, without warning, and perhaps only apparently, swept away? Aethiopica 14 (2011) 186 Madamato and Colonial Concubinage in Ethiopia: A Comparative Perspective that perceived itself divided into two. The Oltremare (meaning the colonies) was politically, diplomatically, economically and even culturally one of the great ߋpulling mythsߌ of Italy, ever since its Unity in 1870 and both before and during Fascism.11 This happened in a country where the sense of belong- ing to a unified nation was based (as it is still) on a vision clearly divided be- tween the North and the South of Italy. Even if the concept of Questione meridionale (the ߋSouthern Questionߌ theorized by Salvemini, Gramsci and others) arose between 1860 and 1870 from the need to build up a ߋcompre- hensibleߌ representation of the South in a country that was finally unified, this concept actually stressed the gap between North and South Italy.